little shop photos

here are the photos my friend sent to me of the homeschooling production of little shop of horrors. i love the purple and green janet chose for audrey, and how it played out in the rest of the show.

st. nicholas

yesterday evening (after reading about st. nicholas from the wynstones book around our advent wreath, and placing the plants on the nature table) the girls left out their shoes (two left out slippers, and one left out a boot) for st. nicholas to fill. he left clementines, walnuts, flower chocolates and a chocolate christmas tree. they look quite yummy and i've been craving chocolate all day! today, after spelling, italian and handwriting, we straightened up the living room, and put up the lights in the windows. we also made minestrone soup for dinner. it was nice to return from dance class to the apartment all lit up with christmas lights, and dinner on the stove.

korrina is often out and about; either at a friend's house, or working with the two children she watches, or at the theatre running the light board for HB's christmas shows. but, this evening she was home to have dinner with us. however . . greg was on a business trip in atlanta! it's not always easy for all five of us to be at the table for dinner together during the busy pre-christmas days.

it was hair curling time this evening. morgana did chanda's hair, and i did morgana's. i had a dream, last night, that when the curlers came out, the hair hung limp and wet. ugh. i hope my dream doesn't come true!! tomorrow night is tech, and it's a test run for the hair curling.

second sunday of advent

this evening we attended an advent spiral hosted by the anthroposophical society of nyc. when the girls were small we used to attend a children's group there led by cynthia lang. she also leads the advent spiral. it was wonderful to see her again, and, of course, we always exclaim at how the children have grown. her daughter is now in DC, and her son will be leaving soon for rome. it's the way it is, she said. i thought the same as i watched the girls walk the spiral. the candles glowed against crystals, sea shells and pine boughs, and cynthia played the harp as all of us walked quiet through the light.

playing the viola

last night we attended our friend's orchestra concert at julliard. she plays the viola with the saturday pre-college program. it's very intense, and we know how hard she has worked at her practicing and how diligent she has needed to be with her class attendance. it's a very competitive program . . . . 'nuf said. attending the concert last night is the carrot for all involved. the peter j. sharp theatre is a beautiful space to perform in, everyone was dressed elegantly for the occasion, and the students' playing was phenomenal . . breathtaking . . . the last piece they did was the overture-fantasy to romeo and juliet by tchaikovsky, and my friend marisa and i were moved to tears. truly amazing. they played a total of nine pieces. i think they only learned all of them in these past three months. (these student concerts at julliard are always free.)

trying to stay one step ahead of the game

we're going into tech week for dances patrelle's nutcracker, and i'm filled with quite a bit of trepidation. after this weekend's rehearsals, we'll be at the theatre tuesday through sunday. when i think back to when korrina did NYCB's nutcracker (twenty two performances), i can't imagine how i did it. of course i was five years younger, which these days counts for a lot. the girls remember sitting downstairs in the new york state theatre and eating a lot of salami sandwiches with french chocolates and hot chocolate for dessert. right now i don't even have bread in the house. i'm wondering: how did i find the time to make the bread (yes, they remember eating the sandwiches with homemade sour dough bread) and buy the salami and then make french chocolates? did i make more of an effort? was i more organized? less tired? i have no idea . . but, i'll keep you posted. (p.s. chanda is reading skating shoes, inspired by the latest skating lessons; morgana is working on a pencil case for the craft fair on friday; jack is happy he has company and that i was just playing tug toy with him; greg and korrina are out of the picture-korrina at her modern dance class with ellen robbins, and greg getting ready to take m and c to manhattan youth ballet's holiday concert. oh, and the cats are probably in the kitchen trying to lick turkey soup out of the bowls in the sink. yes! i did make turkey soup; the last of the thanksgiving turkey. i think we got five meals out of our holiday bird.)

working for the craft fair

chanda has been working diligently each morning on her craft fair items. here she is making a lavender pillow, and needle felting the design.

she says the ones she made last year sold very well. this snowman is so cute! i love his carrot nose.

breakfast, more ice skating, and holiday windows

morgana and i are always trying to entice chanda to eat more oatmeal. her favorite, supposedly, is steel cut oats. this morning i served them with brown sugar and buttermilk. they were very good, and chanda ate . . a little. (sigh.)

janet and i were up early to go . . yes! ice skating again. we're at bryant park a lot this year!

since another homeschooling mom was putting together ice skating lessons at the pond, morgana and chanda are attending the ten week session. i can't believe we're committed to be at the rink every thursday for ten weeks in a row . . oh well. they've been wanting to do this for a number of years now. i hope it helps them become more balanced and relaxed on their skates. morgana has been obsessed with learning . . ummm . . figures and brackets ever since reading noel streatfeild's skating shoes a few years ago.

tessa is also attending. she's their skating shoes comrade-in-arms. they go on and on about brackets, brackets, brackets. if i didn't tune them out half the time, i'd go mad. ummm, am i supposed to admit to that? ("yes dear, you do a bracket on the outside of the blade, and a turn on the inside of the blade, now will you please get out your latin and do the next lesson?")

here is everyone on the ice. i actually didn't get a picture of the lesson because i was . . skating! which is a good thing.

my favorite part about today was walking over to lord and taylor's to see their holiday windows. i always love how they fix them up.

we said good-bye to cindi and tessa after seeing the windows, and m and c and i went home to see:

more windows! jackson pharmacy, the small mom and pop pharmacy in our neighborhood that is still hanging on despite being surrounded by rite aid and duane reade, have their christmas display up also.

happy holidays!

rainy days and wednesdays

kaas glassworks has beautiful glass dishes and coasters for holiday gifts. i love walking in and looking around for gift possibilities at this time of year. and the store is always decorated so lovely at holiday time.

when we woke this morning the rain was pouring down. chanda and i were tempted to not attend the afternoon dance class, but morgana was determined. so, after our morning reading, i walked them to the Y for their duncan dance class. then i walked to the library to return some books. i was about two blocks away when the sky just poured buckets of water on me. i was drenched.

at last the rain abated for the walk home from the library, which is when i took these pictures. the light was grey and subdued. i love the aftermath of a rainstorm.

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after picking chanda up from the duncan dance class (morgana and korrina were at HB studios for tech work on the christmas production), we stopped at the wings theatre to see how janet was doing with the nychea production of the little shop of horrors. she has been working on the costumes, set AND props. last week she told me she thought she was in over her head, but she has persevered and has really outdone herself. the costumes are colorful, fun and just . . amazing! especially the audrey plant. the colors she chose that run throughout the show help to pull the entire production together and help to make everyone feel great and look great singing. i hope i can get some photos that do justice to the handwork that has gone into the skirts and jackets, and the colors that were picked. this evening chanda went around with the camera while i ironed backstage and helped pin scarves on actors. chanda and i went to help sew . . we didn't realize it was opening night!!! all of a sudden actors were taking places! we ran out into the audience and took seats next to some friends. it was a fun show.

here's a photo of camille and caslyn putting a last minute brick wall on mushnik's office windows. caslyn also added some window bars, just to make it skid row authentic.

after documenting the set work that was being done, chanda came and took over the ironing. we both like to iron, which is good, since janet abhors it!